Disabled woman jumps from wheelchair to rescue drowning boy

by Pedro Marrero

A woman with limited mobility due to fibromyalgia and a teenage boy performed an incredible rescue when they teamed up to bring a 12-year-old back to life after he almost drowned in a residential swimming pool.

The incident took place in Rochester, Minnesota, at the Villages at Essex Park apartment complex, as Daily Mail reported on June 11. 13-year-old Cody Runyon and a woman named Desiree Pasko were credited with saving the boy’s life.

A group of children was playing at the swimming pool when one of them suddenly was nowhere to be seen. Fortunately, Runyon noticed the absence of his friend Evan right before it was too late.

'I went underwater, and all of a sudden I see him just laying on the ground just sitting down in five feet, just passed out,' Runyon told local news outlet KTTC. Knowing there was no lifeguard around, he took the matter on his hands.

As the teenager narrated, he rushed to swim toward his friend and dove in to get him above water. 'I grabbed him...around his waist, and then his head was over my shoulder and I started carrying him,' he said.

While Runyon struggled to bring his unconscious friend to the shallow end, Pasko, who often needs a wheelchair or a cane to move around and is unable to lift weight due to fibromyalgia, noticed that something was wrong and wanted to help.

Apparently, Pasko was the only adult around, and she had to use all her strength to help Runyon and another boy pull Evan’s body onto the concrete.

'Adrenaline was so surreal at the time. I walked over and said to the young man, "This isn't funny. If you're playing, this isn't funny"', she said. But she soon understood it was a serious situation and she did what was needed to do.

In a case of being at the right place at the right time, Pasko had the necessary knowledge to administer CPR to the unresponsive child because she had taken a first aids class in the 1990’s.

She gave Evan mouth-to-mouth resuscitation before moving on to chest compressions. 'I was terrified. I was completely terrified. He was so tiny in that moment and he was blue, and he was cold,' said Pasko.

'Then I could hear a small gurgle, and his cheeks got pink. When his cheeks turned pink, I gave one more breath, I did two more big pumps, and then I tipped him over just praying that he would vomit - and he did,' she recalled.

'And when he'd vomited I started screaming "He's alive, he's alive!" Watching a child go from totally blue to a little tiny bit of pink...is a rewarding feeling,’ shared the visibly moved woman.

Thanks to the efforts of these heroes, Evan could walk out of that ordeal unharmed. Read more on our Twitter account @amomama_usa

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